Personal Webpublishing as a reflective conversational tool for self-organized learning :: Sebastian Fiedler :: 1 BlogTalk 2003 Personal Webpublishing as

Sebastian Fiedler :: 1

Personal Webpublishing as a reflective conversational tool for self-organized learning ::

BlogTalk 2003

Personal Webpublishing as a reflective conversational tool for self-organized learning

Sebastian FiedlerDoctoral Student Media Pedagogy, University of Augsburg, Germany MEd Instructional TechnologyDipl.-Psych. (Univ.)

http://www.cognitiveArchitects.comhttp://Seblogging.cognitiveArchitects.com



Contents

• Traditional approaches to learning

• Alternative assumptionsand a conversational framework for learning

• Personal Webpublishing and Weblogs as a conversational learning tool

• Designing conversational learning environments

• Personal Webpublishing networksas conversational environmentsfor self-organized learning



Traditional approaches to learning

• teaching and instructing is conceived as a skillful practice,learning just seems to happen as a consequence

• the pace, pattern, and final result of the intended change process is completely specified and anticipated




• learning is other-organized in this model

• successful students learn how to deal with this situation most of the times

• many come to accept this "expert-knows-best" approach and learn to submit to being instructed




• do they acquire efficient learning skills,habits and attitudes that work well beyond traditional contexts?

• what if we started from an alternative (more adequate?) set of assumptions?



Man-as-scientist

• psychologist George Kelly (1955) proposed to (re-)view people from a perspective he called "man-as-scientist"

• all people attempt to construct patterns of meaning which allow the anticipation of events and the results of their actions

• their processes resemble the more formalized procedures of scientists



Man-as-scientist

• any part of a "personal construct system" (Kelly, 1955) tends to be transient

• people come to understand their world only through "an infinite series of successive approximations"



The public mind-pool and conversation as modeling

• psychologists Harri-Augstein & Thomas (1991) built on Kelly's notion of "man-as-scientist"

• they emphasize that a unique attribute of humans is their ability to "converse"

• the construction and attribution of meaning to artifacts, people, and events can be described as a "conversation" and ongoing "modeling" activity




• our artifacts serve as an expression of the underlying systems of meaning that have stabilized over time

• the mind-pool of public knowledge itself is in large parts codified, materialized, and captured in a vast array of artifacts




• currently we witness that our mind-pool is rapidly expanding

• gaining awareness and conscious control of our processes of learning is

"... more important than any piece of knowledge and expertise in the content of the mind-pool itself"

(Harri-Augstein & Thomas, 1991)



A conversational framework for learning

• learning practitioners (psychologists, instructors, therapists, and so forth) take on the role of tool-maker and provider, observer and joined interpreter

• personal experience can only be tapped by the learner her- or himself, while action and behavior can be observed by others (e.g. learning practitioner).




• both sources can deliver evidence for learning and change

• both sources can be used to support the elicitation, representation, and reconstruction of patterns of personal meaning

• none of these sources should easily be dismissed or ignored!




• Harri-Augstein & Thomas (1991) conceptualize learning within their conversational framework as

"...the conversational construction of personally significant, relevant and viable meaning" whereby meaning is conceived as

"purposeful patterns of thoughts and feelings which are the basis of our anticipations and actions"



The inner and outer conversation

• two psychological perspectives feed our conversational construction process

• the exchange with external resources (people, artifacts, etc.) forms the outer conversation

• we also engage in an inner exchange with ourselves



The inner and outer conversation

• Both our outer and inner conversations are frequently limited by two major handicaps

– lack of language for learning

– personal learning myths (beliefs, values and prejudices about one's own learning)



Conversational tools

• we suffer from a general lack of tools for representing a "person-in-process"

• we need to design and deliver tools that can augment and enhance the inner and outer conversation

• this is where conversational learning tools come into play...




• are content-free templates that scaffold ...

– the inner conversation with oneself

– the outer conversation with a learning coach,

– outer conversation with other resourcesinhabiting the personal learning domain

• provide a framework for action and focused reflections related to a particular learning task




• while their initial application is greatly facilitated by a learning coach,they hold the potential to become a self-coaching device for autonomous learning projects



Personal Webpublishing and Weblogsas a conversational learning tool• Recording and representing one's personal patterns

of meaning or action

– steady flow of smaller items ("posts")

– "logging" ideas, thoughts, reflections, observations in-situ or within temporal proximity

– enriching representations of meaning via digital media

– hyperlinks > embed our externalization

– metadata > context cues



Personal Webpublishing and Weblogsas a conversational learning tool• Reflecting upon the representations

– chronological organization / navigation

– systematic retrieval via text-based search, topic directories, etc.

– we can search for similarities and differences, construct new relationships, reconstruct relationships previously forgotten, and feed the results back

– triggers for focused reflection come from various sources



Personal Webpublishing and Weblogsas a conversational learning tool• Reiterating the process of explication and reflection

– RSS allows for explict modeling of content flows, feedback loops, and monitoring procedures

• for inner conversation

• for outer conversation



Personal Webpublishing and Weblogsas a conversational learning tool• Shifting from a task-focused level to a learning-

focused level of awareness

– systematic observational data is still rare

– growing evidence that people who use personal Webpublishing for their own learning review and improve their own processes over time

– possible causes

• chronological organization and item flow

• personal, reflective writing style > learning myths



Personal Webpublishing and Weblogsas a conversational learning tool• Supporting the construction of a personal mini-

language to converse about the process of learning

– growing vocabulary of personal Webpublishing might serve as a proto-language for the construction of personal mini-languages for learning



Personal Webpublishing and Weblogsas a conversational learning tool• Supporting a gradual internalization of the tool

– hardly any systematic observational data available

– indicators

• "addictive" potential

• growing accessibility and integration in our daily routines

• emerging interfaces with mobile devices

• focus on contextualization and process optimization



Designing conversational learning environmentswith personal Webpublishing practices and technologies

CourseLog ProjectLogsAggregator

Learning Environment Manger

Learning Coach

Learning Project Owner

Learning Environment Designer



Designing conversational learning environmentswith personal Webpublishing practices and technologies



CourseLog



ProjectLog



Edit LogItem



ProjectAggregator



Visualcontent map

project 6http://

597bproject6.cognitivearchitects.com

Synthesis Paper - Higher Order Thinking

http://597bproject6.cognitivearchitects.com/

2003/02/11#a17

Synthesis Paper- Higher Order Thinking


stories/storyReader$14

Web of Readings http://

597bproject6.cognitivearchitects.com/2003/02/11#a18

http://www.personal.psu.edu/

users/b/r/brs139/framework_thinking.htm

First Class reflectionhttp://


Using Course Loghttp://


Blogging about blogging http://


Questioning where to go?http://


To DO http://


Critical and reflective thinking http://


Reflection on organization and thinking


2003/03/01#a28

Reflection on organization and thinking http://


Teaching Technology and Critical Thinking (TTCT)


2003/03/01#a29

Thoughts on Instructional Design or Learner Design


2003/03/01#a30

reflection

reflection

reflection

commentary

commentary

reflection

action

reflection

action

commentary



Personal Webpublishing networks as conversational learning environments for self-organized learners• giant, self-actualizing, conversational learning

environments

• some people in that realm successfully learn outside institutionally organized systems of instruction

• they exhibit remarkable skills for the initiation and maintenance of personal learning projects

• they construct personal learning domains on the fly

• they represent a living part of the public-mindpool

• they become learners and facilitators at the same time



Personal Webpublishing networks as conversational learning environments for self-organized learners• self-organized learners

will quickly understand the potential of personal Webpublishing networks and practices,

while other-organized learnerswill need considerable support and carefully designed interventions

before they can profit from this dynamic conversational learning environment

• so, let's converse...

Documents

Personal Webpublishing as a reflective conversational tool for self-organized learning :: Sebastian Fiedler :: 1 BlogTalk 2003 Personal Webpublishing as